Phila is all the things I love about DC, without all the things I don't. It's hipper & cooler without trying too hard. It's more age diverse. It's friendlier - no airs, no posers. Concertgoers are more into the music, and the performers respond accordingly. There are fewer sirens and they're not as loud. And it hasn't (yet) been ruined by block-swallowing mixed-use development.
The event notice read: "the ensemble uses myriad instruments to uncover the baroque and Levantine influences in Mexican music."
I'd never heard of a connection between Arabic and Mexican music, but Eblen informed me that there's a large population of Lebanese living in Mexico, and their musical traditions have influenced Mexican music.
Comprised of guitarist and composer Eblen Macari, harpsichordist Olga MartÃnez, and percussionist Kabalan Macari, the trio gave a concert titled De Beirut a Cosamaloapan at the Mexican Cultural Institute. The program was described as "a meeting of contemporary music and son jarocho style with Arabic roots and Spanish baroque influence." They played lush, lively Mexican-Baroque-Middle Eastern fusion in the form of original compositions and traditional songs using guitars (including a jarana), harpsichord, and ethnic percussion instruments (including the darbuka).
The group is based in Mexico and rarely performs in the U.S. And their YouTube videos are not exemplary of the beautiful sounds from tonight's performance. Some things are meant to be savored only in the moment.
Tonight, while listening to an internet radio station which plays obscure gems from the '60s and early '70s, I heard the opening notes of a song and froze. It was vaguely familiar. I listened intently as it progressed through the first verse. Something started to happen in my brain. The song was buried deep in my memory, from long ago, and my brain was attempting to reconstruct it as it went on. When it climaxed at the chorus, I finally recognized it and my eyes welled with tears. I was having what's called a MEAM - a Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memory.
The song was "I Ain't Got Time Anymore" by The Glass Bottle ((written by the late great Mike Leander and Eddie Seago and sung by Gary Criss), a beautiful but painfully sad song about the loss of a love. I was just a kid when I first heard it on the radio in 1970.
Wanting to know more about this phenomenon, I found an article in Psychology Today called, "Why Do the Songs from Your Past Evoke Such Vivid Memories?" by Christopher Bergland, which explains the neuroscience of vivid musical memories. Here are the main points:
Familiar songs light up areas in green
In a 2011 study, Finnish
researchers discovered that listening to music activates wide networks
in the brain, including areas responsible for motor actions, emotions,
and creativity.
In a 2009 study, researchers from UC Davis mapped the brain
while people listened to music and found specific brain regions linked
to autobiographical memories and emotions are activated by familiar
music.
Why do autobiographical memories linked to music remain so rich? If you haven't heard a song in
years, the neural tapestry of that song stays purer, and the
song will evoke stronger memories of a time and place from your
past. The memories linked to overplayed songs can become diluted
because the neural network is constantly being updated.
It's the world's largest a/v collection -- a 45-acre campus housing over 1.1 million visual materials and 3.5 million audio recordings on over 90 miles of underground shelving in climate-controlled vaults (and a nuclear bomb-proof underground bunker).
underground storage vault
The collection includes motion pictures, television programs, radio broadcasts, and sound recordings (including MUSIC!!).
The show Elvis Presley got his start on
Fewer than 20% of American silent films still survive in their complete
form. And half of American films produced before 1950 no longer exist, while post-1950 films are threatened by fading and other forms of
deterioration.
Thanks to federal funding, this facility has state-of-the-art capabilities to preserve a/v media in every format dating back 100 years, and to store them in a petabyte-level digital storage archive.
Preservation work
Mike Mashon, Head of Moving Images
78-rpm recording on metal, 1929
Paper print of D.W. Griffith's 1909 film, "The Lonely Villa"
The bodacious DC chapter of Code Pink had a housewarming party today to celebrate their new digs in Northeast. Present were lots of good food & drink, beautiful weather, and a great group of activists of all ages, flavors, and issues.
The Colombian artist Marta Gutierrez is an architect by training who decided to follow her dream of becoming an artist. Her latest exhibit, Critters + Doodles (Alicongaras y Mamarrachos), showcases her talent in the form of whimsical characters, paintings and drawings. Here's a sample from the show, which was hosted by the Colombian Embassy.
on display at the Colombian Ambassador's residence
David and Nancy Stone know how to throw a party. And Richie Furay knows how to say thank-you.
The country-rock pioneer showed his appreciation to the promoters and the sell-out crowd who came to celebrate his 70th birthday with a heartfelt and high-energy performance tonight at the South Orange (NJ) Performing Arts Center. And, like any great birthday party, there were plenty of surprises.
Richie with David & Ted Spero
The evening began with an intimate dinner for Richie & his band with family and friends.
Dinner was followed by a meet & greet reception with close to 100 fans -- many of whom have been following Richie's career since his early days with Buffalo Springfield, then Poco, Souther-Hillman-Furay, the Richie Furay Band and beyond. As always, Richie was gracious with his time -- chatting, signing autographs, posing for photos.
The Richie Furay Band with Rusty Young
Then the concert got underway, along with the first special guest of the evening: Rusty Young, co-founder of Poco and master of the pedal-steel guitar. Rusty engaged the audience with stories and songs and accompanied Richie on several tunes, including the 1973 Poco epic, Crazy Eyes.
The second surprise guest was original Poco drummer and vocalist George Grantham, who continued to play on and off with Poco until 2002, when he suffered a stroke. George got a standing ovation as he walked onstage with the help of a cane and sang with Richie.
Richie Furay and George Grantham
Next up, a video filled with birthday messages from a who's-who of rock musicians including Graham Nash, Jim Messina, Kenny Loggins, Dan Dugmore, Waddy ("You don't look a day over 69") Wachtel, Chris Hillman, Paul Cotton, and many others. At the conclusion, a birthday cake was trotted out, and it was the crowd's turn to sing to Richie.
Mark Volman greets Richie onstage
Then, one last video -- a birthday message from Mark Volman (founding member of The Turtles, former member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, and half of Flo & Eddie), who said he hoped to see Richie "real soon." And right on cue, Volman walked onstage. A perfectly choreographed surprise.
Here are a few YouTube videos courtesy of Buffalo Springgal (and check out 4 great Poco tracks in the jukebox):
This was my third trek to NJ to see Richie and the Stones, and it was
worth every mile to be a part of their warm community of fans and
friends for one memorable night of music and celebration.
Al, who rarely performs these days, did a two-night stand at B.B. King's in NYC to celebrate his 70th birthday. He was supported by guitarist Jimmy Vivino and a backing band of profs from Berklee College of Music. He treated us to a mix of songs from his time with the Blues Project, Mike Bloomfield, Dylan, and the Stones. One of the best-dressed guys in the business, Al didn't disappoint with a sharp black glitter jacket and an exquisite paisley coat that
gave me wonderful flashbacks.
He's always a draw for me because he addresses the problems that everyone else ignores, and does so intelligently and succinctly. If you purchase this book, please buy it at Barnes & Noble or your independent bookstore.
The bodacious DC chapter of Code Pink had a housewarming party today to celebrate their new digs in Northeast. Present were lots of good food & drink, beautiful weather, and a great group of activists of all ages, flavors, and issues. 
